Monthly Archives: August 2011

Atlanta is honoring its worst-to-first 1991 team today at Turner Field, so here we’ll give a nod to the two local connections who played on that team. Greg Olson, a member of the Jackson Mets’ Texas League championship teams of 1984 and ’85, was the Braves’ No. 1 catcher in 1991. Best known for his defense, he hit .241 with six homers and 44 RBIs in 133 games. Also on that club was former Jackson State pitcher Marvin Freeman, a huge (6 feet 6, at least) right-hander who worked 48 innings over 34 games and posted a win, a save and a 3.00 ERA. The ’91 Braves, in Bobby Cox’s first full year back in the dugout, won 94 games after winning just 65 the year before and took Minnesota to seven games in one of the best World Series ever played.

P.S. Ernesto Mejia matched the Mississippi Braves’ record with his 19th home run on Friday night. Matt Esquivel hit 19 in 2007. Esquivel was suspended before the end of that season — for the second straight year — and ultimately released by Atlanta. He is still playing in independent ball. He’s batting .343 with 11 bombs and 48 RBIs for the Long Island Ducks, and he also won the Atlantic League’s home run derby last month.

Daryle Ward is playing for Mobile? The 36-year-old former Jackson Generals star and longtime big leaguer is back in Double-A? Well, yes. He hit a big home run for the BayBears — Arizona’s affiliate in the Southern League — to beat the Mississippi Braves on Thursday night. Ward, a left-handed hitter who had big-time power in his heyday, was signed to a minor league deal by Arizona on July 31. He last played in the independent Atlantic League, hitting 14 homers for Newark in 2010 and 12 in 57 games this summer. He spent some time in Triple-A in 2009 but hasn’t been in a major league game since ’08. Ward smacked 19 homers for the 1997 Generals and famously hit the foul ball that went through the wooden outfield fence at Smith-Wills Stadium. (Sure, the fence was old, but it makes for a great, Roy Hobbs-type story.) Ward blasted 20 homers for Houston in 2000 and hit 70 more while playing for six different teams — including Atlanta in 2006 — in his big league career. Rest assured, Ward is not in Mobile to help the BayBears win a Southern League pennant. Arizona is in a division race, and Ward just might be able to help them as a power-threat pinch hitter in September.

P.S. Apparently, Tyler Pastornicky was ready for Triple-A pitching. The former M-Braves shortstop is hitting .398 through 23 games at Gwinnett. He has a homer, nine RBIs and 15 runs. In 90 games in Pearl, Pastornicky batted .299 with six homers, 36 RBIs and 50 runs.

The hex that has gobbled up former Ole Miss players this season got Lance Lynn on Wednesday. St. Louis put the rookie right-hander on the disabled list with a side injury. Meanwhile, Cincinnati announced that rookie shortstop Zack Cozart (elbow) will have season-ending surgery. Chris Coghlan (knee, elbow) is currently shut down with hopes of restarting rehab work at the end of this month; he might be able to return to the Florida outfield in September. Pittsburgh outfielder Alex Presley (thumb) is currently doing a rehab assignment, and lefty Matt Maloney (side) is pitching again for Cincinnati’s Triple-A Louisville club after a long stay on the DL. Maloney, who last pitched in the big leagues on May 23, got a win Tuesday night, and Triple-A manager Rick Sweet (the former Jackson Generals skipper) told The Courier-Journal, “I can tell he’s back in form.”

P.S. Ernesto Mejia moved within one home run of matching the Mississippi Braves’ single-season record when he blasted his 18th on Wednesday night.

Arodys Vizcaino, the cannon-armed right-hander who blew through Pearl earlier this summer, has been called up to Atlanta to bolster the Braves’ bullpen. Vizcaino, 20, the Braves’ No. 7 prospect in preseason, started 2011 at Class A Lynchburg. He had a 2.45 ERA there. On May 29, he was bumped to Double-A Mississippi, where he was 2-3 with a 3.81 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings. He started out in the M-Braves’ rotation before moving to the bullpen. He was promoted to Triple-A Gwinnett on July 26 and posted a 1.29 ERA out of the pen there. Vizcaino will be the 55th M-Braves alumnus to play in a big league game. Meanwhile, the M-Braves, who lost highly touted right-hander J.J. Hoover to Gwinnett on Tuesday, have replaced him with righty Andrew Wilson, up from Lynchburg. Wilson had a 2.68 ERA and five saves for the Hillcats.

His numbers are down this year, but Bobby Abreu, at age 37, showed he still has a little pop in his bat on Tuesday night. The ex-Jackson Generals standout blasted a pair of home runs, including a ninth-inning game-changer off Mariano Rivera, to spark the Los Angeles Angels to a 6-4 win over the New York Yankees. Abreu, who hit .303 with 16 homers and played a stellar right field for the 1994 Gens, is one of the most accomplished former Jackson area Double-A players. He entered this season with 2,257 career hits, 276 homers, 1,265 RBIs and 372 stolen bases. A .296 career hitter, he’s batting just .255 this season. His two homers Tuesday gave him six for the season, to go with 45 RBIs. The Angels, battling for a playoff spot, figure to keep plugging the left-handed hitting Abreu into the lineup. His days of carrying a team likely are over, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him provide some more big hits down the stretch.

P.S. Former Meridian Community College standout Cliff Lee went eight innings and fanned 10 to pick up his 12th win for Philadelphia on Tuesday. But there seemed to be more buzz about his bat than his arm; he hit his second home run of the season in the Phils’ 2-1 win at Los Angeles. He reportedly has a friendly competition going with fellow pitcher Kyle Kendrick, and Lee now leads 2-0. By the way, the Phillies moved 36 games over .500 with Tuesday’s victory.

A handful of former Mississippi Braves made significant contributions for various MLB teams on Monday. The sizzling Freddie Freeman (two hits, two RBIs) and the amazing Craig Kimbrel (35th save) helped Atlanta beat Florida. Charlie Morton stepped up as the stopper Pittsburgh so desperately needed, throwing eight shutout innings as the Pirates beat San Francisco to end their 10-game skid. Matt Harrison worked seven innings for his 10th win in Texas’ victory over Seattle. And Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 2-for-5 with his 11th homer in Boston’s win over Minnesota. “Salty” arrived in Pearl in 2006 as Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect and had a rough go of it. He made strides in 2007 and jumped to The Show. He was traded to Texas, along with Harrison, Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus, in the big Mark Teixeira deal, then dealt to Boston last season. The switch-hitting catcher has had his share of struggles — at the plate and behind it — the last couple years but may finally have locked in with the Red Sox. While sharing catching duties with veteran Jason Varitek, Saltalamacchia is batting .257 with 38 RBIs in 72 games. The hitting coach in Boston is former Jackson Mets star Dave Magadan.

P.S. Ole Miss product Seth Smith hit a pair of homers for Colorado on Monday, giving him 11 for the season. There were seven homers hit all told in the Rockies’ 10-7 win at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark.

It’s all gone horribly wrong for Pittsburgh. The Pirates, who had captured our fancy in the season’s first half, have lost nine straight and fallen four games under .500. Their playoff hopes may be dashed even before September gets here. Paul Maholm, the left-hander from Greenwood by way of Mississippi State, has had two chances to play stopper during the Pirates’ skid and failed both times. On Saturday, he allowed 10 hits, a walk and seven earned runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 13-2 loss at home to San Diego. On Monday, when the losing skid was just three, Maholm yielded six hits, three walks and four earned runs in six innings of a 5-3 loss at home to the Chicago Cubs. For the year, Maholm is 6-12 with a 3.54 ERA. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, the former Jackson Mets skipper, may be headed toward one of his most disappointing finishes. He’s not alone there; all the Mississippi-connected managers in the big leagues are having tough times. An awful start may have doomed Ron Gardenhire’s Minnesota club. Washington has fallen into last place since Davey Johnson took over. Baltimore has been a disaster in Buck Showalter’s first full year there, and Kansas City has floundered again under Ned Yost.
P.S. Former Mississippi Braves shortstop Brent Lillibridge hit his eighth homer of the season on Saturday for the Chicago White Sox. Lillibridge, a 185-pound utility man who has just 132 at-bats this season, was in the game as a defensive replacement at first base for Adam Dunn, the 285-pound slugger signed to a big-money deal in the off-season. Dunn has 11 homers in 331 at-bats. He is hitting .163 and has struck out an MLB-worst 142 times.

The battle between first-place teams in San Francisco turned into a literal fight on Friday night. In the sixth inning of what would be a 9-2 Philadelphia win, the Giants’ Ramon Ramirez hit Shane Victorino squarely in the back with a fastball. Victorino, who had homered earlier in the game, started towards the mound but was cut off by Giants catcher Eli Whiteside. The former Delta State star then tackled (sort of) the Phillies’ Placido Polanco as both benches, bullpens and clubhouses emptied. It was a wild scene; even Phillies coach Sam Perlozzo, the old Jackson Mets manager, was caught up in the middle of the giant scrum. Ramirez, Victorino and Whiteside — who hit his fourth homer of the year Friday — were ejected. Suspensions are sure to follow. The Phillies have won the first two games of the four-game series, which continues today with Cole Hamels facing Matt Cain. Weir’s Roy Oswalt is slated to come off the disabled list and go Sunday for Philly. This is compelling stuff.
P.S. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn notched his first career save Friday in hair-raising fashion for St. Louis. He gave up two walks and a hit in the ninth before ending the Cardinals’ 3-2 win over Florida with a punchout of Marlins slugger Mike Stanton.

Cliff Lee’s numbers from Thursday night’s start imply dominance. (On Sirius/XM radio, he sounded dominant, and the MLB Network highlights today confirmed that.) The left-hander out of Meridian Community College hurled his fifth shutout of the season for Philadelphia, beating San Francisco 3-0. He allowed just seven hits, struck out eight and walked none. The Giants were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. That’s the kind of effort the Phillies were paying for when they gave Lee a 5-year, $120 million dollar deal in the off-season. For the year, Lee is 11-7 with a 2.96 ERA. He’s had some rough spots, but when he’s on, as he was Thursday, he’s an artist. Still hard to fathom how he lost twice to the Giants while pitching for Texas in the World Series last fall. Thursday night might have been a little payback, though the real test will come if these teams meet in the postseason, which is a strong possibility.

Roy Oswalt is slated to make his return to the Philadelphia rotation on Sunday. The Holmes Community College alumnus from Weir has been out since June 24 with back problems. His rehab work reportedly went well, and the Phillies will put him back on the bump at San Francisco. “The thing about baseball is that you never know what’s going to happen until you get out there,” Oswalt told mlb.com. Oswalt won seven straight games for the Phils down the stretch last season after he was acquired from Houston. A repeat of that kind of performance would be a bonus for a first-place club that doesn’t appear to need that much help. Oswalt is 4-6 with a 3.79 ERA this season. … On Wednesday, for the second straight day, ex-Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon picked up a win thanks to a walk-off hit by Jacoby Ellsbury. The Boston closer has allowed just one run in 11 appearances since July 6. He has five saves and the two W’s over that period. For the year, Papelbon, a pending free agent, is 4-0 with 24 saves in 25 opportunities and a 3.35 ERA. … Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan, out of the Florida lineup since June 17 because of a knee problem, has twice had his rehab assignment interrupted, the latest time by an elbow injury. He is expected to resume playing in the next couple of days. When he might return to the Marlins is unclear. … Nettleton’s Bill Hall has cleared waivers and accepted his assignment to San Francisco’s Triple-A Fresno team. Hall, hitting .318 in six games for Fresno, is no longer on the Giants’ 40-man roster but apparently is hoping he can get back to the big league club in September. We shall see. Other than two rehab assignments, Hall’s last stint in the minors was in 2003.